Charts are used to convey large amounts of information and to capture the attention of a reader. For example, a chart showing a plot of data points may be used to compare changes in sets of data over a period of time. A pie chart can be used to illustrate the relative sizes of portions of a whole. Use of charts and other graphical elements may allow an author to provide the relevant data to the reader without writing out large sections of text.
In existing systems, the addition of a chart to a document is a time consuming and cumbersome process. An author may write a document in a word processing application. To add a chart, the author uses a spreadsheet application to generate a table of the data to be conveyed by the chart. The author then uses the spreadsheet application to select the data to be graphed, the type of chart to be generated, and how the data is to be presented. Upon generating the chart in the spreadsheet application, the author returns to the word processing application to import the chart from the spreadsheet application. The data used to create the chart is not accessible by the word processing application.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.